And Then There Was One

A L O H A

Friends!

Click on sweet photos

“Fortunate people often have very favorable beginnings and very tragic endings. What matters isn't being applauded when you arrive - for that is common -

but being missed when you leave.”
Baltasar Gracian








“The secret to a rich life is to have more beginnings
than endings.”
David Weinbaum

“The greatest stories are those that resonate our beginnings and intuit our endings, our mysterious origins and our numinous destinies, and dissolve them both into one.”
Ben Okri

The first sugar mill in Hawaii was opened in Koloa Kauai in 1835.

As late as 1968 there were 26 mills producing more than 1 million tons of the sweet stuff. In 1970 5,900 workers cultivated 239,000 acres. By 2000 only 1,000 workers on 60,000 acres remained. According to the USDA, this year there remain only 21,700 acres of waving green.

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On Friday, Gay & Robinson of Kauai (1889) brought in their last crop, leaving Maui's Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar's 800 employees as the last of the breed.

The by now familiar scene unfolded: convoys of cane trucks, sounding their horns, drove past cheering locals. Many if not most of those folks were 3rd generation sugar workers, a living connection with Hawaii's plantation past.

The Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, and Portuguese all came to work the land, bringing their customs, languages and food: major ingredients of the unique "local" flavor that IS Hawaii. The plate lunch grew from their shared lunches, our beloved pidgin way of talking (Hawaiian Creole English) came from mingling on the plantation too.

Yes, King Sugar remade these islands. It would be impossible to imagine what we would be without it.

Fortunately for the workers, many of them will remain in their cozy plantation housing (less than $104 a month for a family house, and $10 a year for water).

We never thought we'd miss the hard work and paternalistic atmosphere of the plantation, it was not the work our grandparents wanted for us, but now there is more than a hint of nostalgia as a rich, long, way of life fades into history.

"I told them to get an education. I didn't want them working hard like me. This is hard work." Charles "Red" Carveiro, 3rd generation sugar man from 1961 to 2002, speaking of his own children.

"I just don't know what I'm gonna do." Frederick Bacio, age 70

The economy, and rising value of land, drove the closure.

I remember the signs: "Slow Moving Cane Trucks" and the dusty, red-caked trucks themselves. Little did I know then that I was stuck behind history itself. When Brother Israel Kamakawiwoole died, a similar convoy of trucks circumnavigated our Oahu while mourning crowds lined the roads.

"It was a very, very tough day for me. We tried everything to keep the company going. The (Robinson) family lost a lot of money over the last 5 years."

E. Alan Kennet, G&R president

Seed corn companies, DOW Agribusiness (bio-tech), and Pioneer Hi-Bred, are leasing some of the land and will keep on a handful of the workers. There is even talk of growing sugar again, this times as ethanol, and as bio-mass that will be burned to produce electricity. No one yet knows how this will all work out, but many of us hope to see acres and acres of waving sugar cane on Kauai again.

"The sugar land is now in corn or some other crop,

So hopefully Kauai will keep it's beautiful green vistas."

George Costa, Kauai Office of Economic Development

"That's been a goal of our family, to work hard for a better life. But never forget your roots and the values to work hard and respect your neighbors."

Pat Pablo, state public health nurse who comes from

a "sugar family."

"You are the salt of the Earth, You made Kauai and Hawaii what it is."

Congressional Rep. Neil Abercrombie.

Good night, sweet prince!

A L O HA! cloudia

Antique Blog

"Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked,
in which you can walk with love and reverence"
Thoreau

A L O H A

Forward into Hawaii's Past!

Ye photographs may be viewed by "clicking" upon them

These are Ballast Stones carried by sailing vessels here to Honolulu. Once they loaded with sandalwood,

the ballast wasn't needed

and so remained here.

Photo: display at the Missionary Houses Museum.

What must it have been like to sail to Hawai‘i

with the first missionaries?

The ancient Kapu ("taboo") system and the temple idols had only recently been overthrown by the Hawaiians themselves.

When royal men & women dined together without apparent harm it was the end of the old ways.

Then the brig Thaddeus arrived from Massachusetts carrying the first missionaries into this extraordinary cultural/spiritual void.

Change swept the islands like a slow-motion hurricane.

On October 23, 1819, when the Brig Thaddeus left Boston carrying 19 Protestant missionaries bound for the Sandwich Islands with 4 Hawaiians, 3 of whom had been educated at the Cornwall School, little did they know that they would change the history of the Islands in profound ways.

En route to the Hawai‘i, a day-by-day journal

was kept of the voyage.

Entries vary from the mundane

to events of great hardship and danger.

Now an online blog follows their journey.

A hundred and ninety years later, you can follow their

six month voyage by going online to

<http://www.thaddeusjournal.org/>.

This blog was created by the Mission Houses Museum, which owns the journal, in conjunction with a new exhibit titled “Coming to Hawai‘i: A Trunk Show,” which opens in January 2010.

“We want people to become engaged in the day-to-day challenges the missionaries faced during their long and perilous voyage. Most of the missionaries were quite young—in their early twenties—newly married and full of optimism and hope for their plan to bring Christianity and Western education to the Hawaiian people. It required a great deal of courage to commit themselves to going to such a far away, unknown place, not knowing if they would ever return to their New England homeland.”
Elizabeth Nosek, Senior Curator, Mission Houses Museum, Honolulu

See you there!

ALOHA Friends, cloudia

Tropic Halloween

A L O H A!

it's

Halloween Saturday

in Honolulu

click on photos to be bewitched

The frost is on the coconut.

"Seasons in the Clouds"

"October is a symphony of permanence and change."
Bonaro W. Overstreet

Let's go for an aimless drive

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.

Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.

The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy,

while cares will drop off like autumn leaves."

John Muir

Ah; The Seasonal Leaves! (Taro: poi on the hoof)

"Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it."
Salvador Dali

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The trade winds have returned!

The air is clear and sharp.

Diamond Head, the Ko`olau & the Waianae Mountains

are crisp.

Sleeping is serene.

If I wasn't going into a sealed room with many, many psychiatrists early tomorrow (Sunday!) morning, it would be a really nice weekend.

(see yesterday's post for the juicy back-story)

Ah, what the hey.

They'll all be hungover after Saturday Night Halloween Honolulu anyway.

Maybe I'll wear a costume to amuse them.

I'll disguise myself as a normal person.

LOL!

And later this weekend, Saint Damien's relic (his hand) will be received at an interdenominational event at the Iolani Palace.

Then a procession will accompany it to it's resting place

at Our Lady of Peace Cathedral.

I heard an ancient local man telling someone:

"They sending his hand, because that's what he touched us with,

helped us."

Enjoy YOUR Day

Warmly, Cloudia

Spy in the House of Psychiatry

It's

ALOHA FRIDAY!

Welcome Back to Waikiki

photos, click on the-" Goin` up the country, got to get away. . . "
Country Joe Mcdonald

"Truth is not introduced into the individual from without,

but was within him (sic) all the time."

Kierkegaard

These ladies are public health outreach workers.
They bring help and information to those who need it the most.
They may have offices, but their real workplace is the streets,
and the heart.

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One night many years ago, in a city far away, a much younger me was spontaneously initiated into front-line street outreach.

Returning from New York on the train late one night, I arrived at a dozing 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. (Go Phillies!)

This is the huge, echoing sepulcher that steals the key opening scenes of the film "Witness."

Who knows why we notice the previously un-noticed?

Who knows why our lives are marked and changed forever simply as a result of walking left, or right?

That night I noticed an old man and a young boy sitting on one of the hard, wooden benches under the spooky, extreme bas-relief that depicts the history of transportation where the Amish mom and child sat in the film.

Somehow I knew that they were not necessarily waiting for a train. You might laugh at me, but I think that sometimes angels whisper in our ears. Most of the time, I only realize it afterwards. But that night I felt a surge of impersonal decisiveness that propelled me across the vast space to the all-night McDonald's.

There were 14 desultory hamburgers and cheeseburgers under the orange heating lamp. They looked as listless and purposeless as the late shift counter-person in the empty, over lit, late night oasis.

"Please give me all of those hamburgers."

"Is that to go?"

"No, I'm gonna eat them here while you watch! Just put them in a bag please."

What happened next was an out-of-body experience.

As you can tell from the interchange above, I was an impatient jerk who didn't suffer "fools" wisely back then. Thinking about it now, I realize that THIS night I'm telling you about marked my embarkation on another path.

Walking across the giant space, I understood that there are people everywhere with nowhere to go, people who are hungry and cold. They had just been part of the city-scape before. Now I wondered why someone didn't just do some simple thing. It was SO obvious!

Approaching the old man and the boy, I instantly understood that this was not about me; this was bigger than me in a mysterious way. I was not to taint this with my personality or ideas. I was simply there to offer food simply.

"Want a hamburger?"

The old man looked at the warm bag, then at me.

"Who are you?!"

"No one, just take a sandwich.

They did.

That was the first time.

It was the time of Reagan, and there were more people on the streets. I could not shake the feeling, a feeling hard to describe, that this was what I wanted to do.

No bullshit. Just food.

So I bought bread, jelly and peanut butter from my meagre earnings, and made nightly forays through the streets and alleys of Philadelphia giving away the sandwiches that I made; doing it all as simply as possible. Matter of fact: "Here it is."

The only thing that I knew was the satisfaction of doing something worth-while. It was OBVIOUS: this is what you do. The only mistake as I saw it, was to do it "for the feeling."

All my self-doubt, confusion, and future-fear were quiet when I walked those streets. There was at least one reason for me to exist.

Well, long story short, I got involved with non-profit organizations. I saw how a good idea gets mired in "professionalism" and "boundaries" and "training" and measurable change, statistics and funders reports.

I noticed how the word "client" creates a judgement and a separation.

Anyway, the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatrists is meeting here in Waikiki. I used to provide medical education around issues of stigma and risk, and have been invited to speak to the shrinks about after school groups for at-risk Isle kids that I launched and facilitated a few years back. A study was published, and re-published, and so I will be the only mere BA to instruct the MD experts.

They will want to know about recruiting the participants, about the curriculum and structure of the sessions. They will enjoy the numerical data generated and published.

But what I want them to understand is that it's not all about professionalism and prescriptions. I want them to understand that it IS all about simply being there with the right attitude. It's really Aloha, unconditional positive regard, that made measurable, positive changes in the lives of the kids who participated. Mine too.

A psychiatrist or other professional is very full.

I have learned to serve others by being empty, by listening without agenda.

So I will be a spy in the house of psychiatry.

And though my presentations have always been well received, it's been a few years since I was really doing that work. I'm grateful that they asked, and hope that my information will help them serve kids better.

But I'll be glad when it's over.

A L O H A! Cloudia

October Morn

A L O H A

Welcome to a Still Morning

Here in Waikiki

photos enlarge with a click!

Aloha, Kolea (Golden Plover)

"The ornaments of your house

will be the guests who frequent it."

Unknown

I HAVE a spine! It's just pink, that's all!

“That old black magic has me in its spell,

That old black magic that you weave so well;

Icy fingers up and down my spine,

The same old witchcraft when your eyes meet mine”
Johnny Mercer

A`ole (No) Opala (Garbage)!



"Water and air,

the two essential fluids on which all life depends,
have become global garbage cans."
Jacques Yves Cousteau

Gentle Skies





"I heard the church bells hollowing out the sky
Deep beyond deep, like never-ending stars."

Sir John Betjeman


I Think We're Alone





"It's often just enough to be with someone.

I don't need to touch them. Not even talk.

A feeling passes between you both.

You're not alone."

Marilyn Monroe





This morning is hazy & still
with a tang of Autumnal chill in the air.
A gentle atmosphere pervades, as if the sky, sea and isle
were rendered in soft pastels.





The kolea,
thin from their trans-pacific flight,
settle in to the broad lawns of their winter territory.




The deep dawning present
expands like a deeply grateful breath.
Filling me with such NOW
that I have no room at all
for future worries or concerns..




Pele's vog wreathes us
hiding Oahu half in myth
like the legendary destination we are;
A living, glittering,
golden treasure
where the sheer intensity of beauty
charms us each away
from chronic ways of seeing,
and being.




Welcome to Waikiki in late October.
A quiet season
with ample time to wander
and waking-dream.




Tomorrow
the freshening Trades will return
pushing winter along
whose clear blue skies
of amazing intensity,
whose hula-swaying palms,
will stir like mesmerized titans.





Mountains so sharp
they inscribe themselves,
incise themselves,
into the viewers heart.




Thanks to El Nino
it should be a cool,
dry,
subtropical winter.




Twain called it "eternal Summer"
in the "loveliest fleet of islands
anchored in any ocean."






So welcome to Waikiki
in late October.




ALOHA, Honored Guest! cloudia

Knock Knock

AH- Loha

Waikiki Welcomes YOU Back. . .

click on photos-in-the-sand

"If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light.

Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears."

-- Glenn Clark

"Sometimes one likes foolish people for their folly, better than wise people for their wisdom."

Elizabeth Gaskell

"Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you."
Maori Proverb

Scene: Me at my desk, here below decks,

on board my home/boat visiting blogs on-line.

Suddenly there is a "knock" against the hull.

Sounds like something is loose, and banging against the boat.

I go up on deck to look around.

It always amazes me that all of THAT HAWAII is just outside

while I swim across the surging bits & pixels of the Internet

down here.

>

I find: nothing.

Nothing swinging, nothing loose, nothing rolling across the deck.

Back at my laptop I hear it again: "Knock Knock."

Nothing hanging from the rigging.

Once more around the deck looking for the source.

Nothing.

But look at all that sky and beauty! I gotta go outside more!

Clicking on another blog. . . Knock!

Kitty was very tolerant as I stepped over her for the bazillionth time. Knock!

Aha!

Looking over the side, I spot it:

A floating beer bottle, ballast-ed with water, is lurking.

Knock!

Glad that it is not something I need to fix RIGHT NOW, I settle back at the keyboard.

MMMMMM? Is it too early for a libation?

LOL!

Here's to YOU my bloggy friends! ALOHA, cloudia

Aloha Uncle George

A L O H A

To YOU today!

Welcome to a Special Hawaiian Post

click on photos like a local!Uncle George Lanakilakekiahiali'i Naope

Born in Kalihi, Oahu in February 1928 - October 26, 2009

"I did all I wanted to do."

There's a feeling deep in my heart. . .

"Now we can call on him at any time.

A wheelchair can't come out on a rocky cliff or a crest.

Now we can call on him anywhere."

"I think what I always enjoyed most about seeing Uncle George is, whenever he went into a room, all eyes went on him. That energy, that responsibility he carried, he loved it. He loved that position, yet at the same time he had that mission, that responsibility to carry on the hula. It's really nice, this tiny little man could come in and the entire auditorium would stop. That says a lot about who he is."

Sig Zane,

Textile designer, Cultural Practitioner, and Kumu Hula.

In 2006, Uncle George was a National Endowment for the Arts fellow. He also received the Na Hoku Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hawaii Academy of Recording Arts;

The Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau and Hawaii Tourism Authority both honored Na'ope with lifetime achievement awards.

"Uncle shared hula with the world.

It was his desire that hula be danced everywhere, and many of our kumu hula today are enjoying the legacy he leaves for all of us. He was a consummate entertainer, and that's what he did for the world, with aloha."

Jacqueline "Skylark" Rosetti

http://www.bigislandweekly.com/articles/2009/10/26/read/news/news01.txt

"I felt the hula was becoming too modern and that we have to preserve it. [David] Kalakaua [king of Hawaii 1874-91, aka The Merrie Monarch] brought the hula back to Hawaii and made us realize how important it was for our people. There was nothing here in Hilo, so I decided to honor Kalakaua and have a festival with just hula.

I didn't realize that it was going to turn out to be one of the biggest things in our state."
Uncle George, NEA National Heritage Fellow 2006

http://www.nea.gov/honors/heritage/fellows/interview.php?id=2006_07

"I tell the young people to learn the culture and learn it well, preserve it so their children and their children's children can continue with our culture and that our culture will live forever."

Uncle George

"In later years, Na'ope was known not just as a kumu hula, but as a raconteur, a dapper man decked out in bright clothes and huge rings. A fixture at the festival and its many auxiliary events, he was adored by hula-loving visitors, often seen in a huge peacock-style chair having his picture taken with visitors from Japan.

In latter years, when he crept up the ramp to the Merrie Monarch stage to perform a hula during the finale, the crowd would go wild.

He was called 'The Menehune,' for his small stature, or sometimes "Dandy," a reference to King Kalakaua's hula master Dandy Ioane, also a dapper dresser."

Gordon Y.K. Pang,
Honolulu Advertiser

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When I lived in Kona in the 80's I used to see a dapper old fellow walking down the road. He was decked out in lei, with a flower in his hat, wearing many many Hawaiian bracelets & rings. "That's Uncle George," folks would say with a special tone in their voices.

The State of Hawaii declared him a "Living Golden Treasure" but needn't have. He was already beloved and appreciated in a way that is hard to express in this modern day and time.

He is one of the few slender bridges that brought the cultural treasures of Hawaii's past into the present. At the penultimate moment of the Merrie Monarch Festival (the "Olympics of hula") while the judges tally the results, the tension, exhaustion, and exultation are palpable - even when viewed on TV.

It was at just this moment that Uncle George would take the stage to dance. All eyes were on him, including all of the dancers and kumu waiting to hear their rankings.

There, in the spotlight, our foremost hula expert would begin to dance real Kolohe ("mischievous, naughty, prankster, rascal"). A bit funny, a bit naughty, he always brought a humanity and warmth that touched hearts throughout the world. He had something of the little kid in him.

I last saw Uncle George here in Honolulu in the Spring of 2006 when he was signing inaugural copies of "Humu Mo`olelo - Journal of the Hula Arts" of which he is considered the founder.

It was always permitted to treat him with warmth and familiarity, so I mentioned Kona days and we admired each others jewelry. He signed my journal: "Aloha Cloudia, Uncle George Naope."

Here it sits by my side. The privilege was all mine, Uncle.

Aloha `Oe to a dear & great human being!

And to each of YOU for joining us today. Dance on! cloudia

Here is the link to Burl Burlingame's Honolulu Star Bulletin article:

http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20091027_Aloha_oe_to_Hawaiis_kumu_hula_scholar.html